DETENTION CENTER MURALS REIMAGINED AS BUILDING IS DEMOLISHED. BY ARTIST RICHARD HAAS “IMMIGRATION ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE OF NEW YORK”,1989
WE WILL BE TAKING SOME TIME OFF AND WILL RE-APPEAR OCCASIONALLY THIS MONTH. SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER…
CREDITS
JUDITH BERDY PHOTOS WERE TAKE FROM UNDER THE CONSTRUCTION SHED, WHERE MURAL REPRODUCTIONS BLOCK THE DEMOLTION SITE,
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
An automaton is a machine designed to operate on its own by responding to predetermined instructions. By the mid-eighteenth century, a number of talented craftsmen operated in Paris from where they exported clockwork automata and mechanical singing birds around Europe and beyond.
The undisputed master in this domain was Jacques de Vaucanson. In 1735, he constructed a life-sized flautist that produced twelve melodies. His masterpiece was unveiled in May 1764 when he presented a “Canard Digérateur” (Digesting Duck) to the public.
The bird consisted of a copper exterior with more than a thousand moving parts. As well as flapping its wings and quacking, it appeared (by a design trick) to have the ability to eat kernels of grain, then digest and defecate them.
De Vaucanson was a man of the Enlightenment. He combined his studies in anatomy at the Paris medical school with an interest in mechanical inventions. Like the philosophers of his day, he was intrigued by the “man and machine” issue.
In 1747, Julien Offray de La Mettrie published L’homme machine (Man: A Machine) in which argued that all living beings are machines fueled by food. The human body is the “living image of perpetual movement.” He proposed the slogan: “You are what you eat.” Linking mechanical technology with food consumption would later acquire a specific relevance.
Are You Being Served?
The Enlightenment marked a turning point in the history of cookery. As gluttony gave way to refinement, settings were improved. Tables were laid with crockery; cutlery and (crystal) glasses became part of the ritual. Round tables inspired convivial interaction. Consumption was associated with well-being.
Throughout his work, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (a vegetarian) discussed food, suggesting that a nutritious “natural” diet would boost the formation of a wholesome character. The word restaurant itself was derived from the verb restaurer (to reconstitute). Early Parisian restaurants reflected the health awareness of the era. These establishments focused on selling a slow cooked bone broth (bouillon) as their main dish.
One of the first restaurant proprietors was A. Boulanger, a “bouillon seller,” who opened his business near the Louvre in 1765. In his establishment, soups were served that had the reputation of restoring strength to those who suffered poor health. Its sign bore the motto: “Venite ad me omnes qui stomacho laboratis et ego restaurabo vos” (Come to me, all of you whose stomachs hurt and I will restore you). The proprietor called himself a healer or “restaurateur.”
Boulanger was not content to serve just bouillon. He also offered leg of lamb in white sauce to his clients. As his action infringed on the monopoly of the powerful caterers’ guild, he was taken to court. The case ended in a judgment favoring Boulanger, thus lifting all restrictions on eating establishments.
Bouillon restaurants started to expand their offering and the popularity of eating out began to spread. In 1782 chef and culinary writer Antoine Beauvilliers opened La Grande Taverne de Londres on the Rue de Richelieu in Paris. It was dubbed Europe’s first luxury restaurant.
The French Revolution accelerated the development towards the democratization of dining. The political events of the 1790s released kitchen staff from aristocratic patronage. As the nobles fled or faced the guillotine, their private chefs found themselves unemployed. They had to offer their skills to the public at large, setting up as independent restaurateurs catering to a new bourgeois clientele. By 1804 Paris had more than five hundred restaurants.
The word waiter in the sense of a “servant who waits at household tables” dates from late fifteenth century. In reference to inns and taverns it dates from 1660s, predominantly referring to someone who serves drinks. The proliferation of hotels and restaurants caused a transfer of workers in domestic service to the hospitality sector and contributed to the emergence of serving staff as a distinctive (hierarchical) occupational group.
Automat
From the outset, there has been an uneasy relationship between restaurateurs, waiters and clients. For owners, waiters were an expensive and often troublesome addition to the cost of running a business. For clients, their intrusive hovering around the dinner table was a source of continuous irritation.
Tipping was another disturbing issue. As small acts of generosity, tips had their origins in domestic service. Ever since the Tudor era, visitors to private homes would give sums of money (known as “vails”) at the end of their stay for service rendered by the host’s staff. Tips supplemented the wages of domestic servants.
The giving of vails was probably a uniquely British phenomenon and it is not known how the habit spread to restaurants and hotels. In hospitality, the expectation grew that the customer would subsidize the worker’s income (allowing employers to refrain from paying serving staff a fixed wage).
Towards the end of the nineteenth century the idea of the automaton re-emerged and was given a new direction. Researchers began to explore ways of developing a “waiter-less” system of service in order to improve efficiency, raise client satisfaction and reduce staff numbers.
The concept of an automatic restaurant was proposed in Germany. The word “automat” was introduced to describe any type of coin-operated dispensing apparatus.
The world’s first such restaurant was established in June 1895 on the grounds of Berlin’s zoological garden by a company named Quisisana that manufactured automat machines and equipment. On the first Sunday of operation it sold 5,400 sandwiches, 22,000 cups of coffee and 9,000 glasses of wine and cordials.
The firm’s name maintained the “healing” connotation of the term restaurant as it is derived from the Italian phrase “qui si sana” (here you become healthy).
In 1896 a new firm named “Automat” was founded as a joint venture between the Berlin engineer Max Sielaff, an inventor of different types of slot machines, and the Cologne-based chocolate maker Stollwerck. The company presented itself to the public at the Berlin Industrial Exposition that same year and was an instant hit.
Its “waiter-less” restaurant was designed by Sielaff and provided hot meals, sandwiches and drinks in a lavish dining room with stylish stained glass windows.
How did the Automat function? The walls of the establishment were lined with small windows, each of which contained edibles or drinkables. Customers inserted a coin to unlock the window, allowing them to pull out a meal or drink. The food came ready-made. No waiters. No tips.
The fame of automatic restaurants spread rapidly after one such premises won a gold medal at the Brussels World Fair of 1897. The German prototype was sold all over Europe and would soon reach the United States.
A Toxic Profession
Delmonico’s opened its doors in 1837, comprising lavish private dining suites and an enormous wine cellar. The restaurant, which still remains housed at its original Manhattan location, is said to be the first in America to use tablecloths. Delmonico’s employed an army of waiters.
With the rapid expansion of the hospitality sector, resentment against waiters increased. An 1885 editorial in The New York Times condemned servers as one of the “necessary evils of an advanced civilization.” Waiters were accused of rude mannerisms. A particular driver of anti-waiter sentiments was the expectation of tipping. The practice was despised as a European import and maligned as “offensively un-American.” Waiters were a strain, the prospect of having to tip them was an insult.
Affluent citizens were accused of having initiated the custom at resorts such as Saratoga Springs or Newport, guaranteeing good treatment for the stay. The word “tip” was British English (many critics blamed England for the practice), Americans tended to use the term “fee” which inspired a popular quip in the 1870s, “When you have feed the waiter of the summer resort, then he will feed you.” Attempts to eradicate tipping failed. Instead, entrepreneurs took an interest in European experiments with waiter- less restaurants.
Frank Hardart was an immigrant from Sondenheim, Bavaria, who had settled in Philadelphia working in hospitality. In 1888 he responded to an advertisement placed by Joseph Horn who was seeking a business partner. Horn & Hardart (H & H) founded a chain of establishments that catered to urban workers with a reputation for fast food and fresh coffee. Public esteem encouraged their willingness to experiment.
In 1901, Hardart traveled to Berlin and having seen the Automat technology in operation, the entrepreneurs shipped the machinery to America and opened a restaurant on June 12, 1902, at 818 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. The first H & H Automat Lunch Room in New York City was established a decade later (July 1912) on Times Square to feed Broadway’s theatre crowd. A second Manhattan location opened its doors shortly after on Broadway and East 14th Street.
Those who entered the premises were stunned by an impressive vending machine with rows of windowed compartments containing different menu items, including sandwiches, macaroni cheese, chicken pot pie, baked beans or coconut cream pie. Having made a choice, the customer dropped a nickel into a coin slot, turned a knob, lifted up the door and removed the food.
Unlike Manhattan’s sophisticated dining rooms, Automats were simple and democratic. But they were not without decorum. Many H & H premises were Art Deco designs with elegant marble counters and floors, stained glass, chrome fixtures and carved ceilings. Food was served on china plates and consumed with proper cutlery. French-drip style coffee was always hot and freshly brewed.
Just before the outbreak of the Second World War, at the height of the Automat’s popularity, the company had over eighty locations in Philadelphia and New York City, serving some 350,000 customers per day. In the second half of the twentieth century, Automats began to lose their prominent position with the emergence of more convenient fast-food restaurants. The last H & H Automat closed in 1991.
Depression Cocktail
H & H restaurants were integral to Manhattan’s cityscape. The Automat was an institution, a metaphor for a lifestyle in the spirit of the Ford assembly line. The “nickel-in-the-slot eating place” became an American icon (in spite of its European roots), celebrated on stage and screen. Movie stars like Audrey Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart, Gene Kelly and Gregory Peck all dined there. In Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Marilyn Monroe in the role of Lorelei Lee sang “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” (Verse 1):
A kiss may be grand but it won’t pay the rental On your humble flat or help you at the automat.
Although Automats originated as a high-tech form of food service, they reflected New York City’s fast-paced and multi-national society where people from all walks of life gathered briefly to eat without being bothered by waiters before hurrying on with their day to day business. Smart but impersonal, H&H was a place of autonomy and instant gratification.
During the Great Depression, Automats offered cheap sustenance or a warm coffee to many impoverished people. They also offered shelter. The absence of waiters meant that homeless or unemployed New Yorkers could come in from the cold (or heat) without being requested to leave the premises. Some of them consumed a “Depression Cocktail” consisting of free ketchup mixed into a glass of water. The Automat could be a place of loneliness and lingering.
In 1927, there were fifteen Automats in New York City. On Valentine’s Day that year Edward Hopper opened his second solo show at the Rehn Galleries on Fifth Avenue. It was here that he first displayed his painting “Automat.” Like in other works, forlornness is the central subject of this painting.
In an evocative scene of introspection, it depicts a woman at a restaurant table staring downward over a cup of coffee on a seemingly cold night. The reflection of artificial light in the window glass highlights her melancholic solitude.
The sparsely furnished interior is reminiscent of the Automat at Times Square. An establishment associated with vending machines and crowds is reduced to a sober scene without any others. Her self-conscious presence in an empty public space, puts the onlooker in the uncomfortable position of being an intruder.
Hopper’s painting communicates a narrative about modern life. Alienation (the state of being withdrawn from the urban world) was a theme that preoccupied sociologists of the 1920s and 30s.
Many Americans felt disconnected from traditional values and their sense of uncertainty is reflected in literature. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and other novelists created disillusioned characters who felt lost in society. Hopper’s work linked with perceptions of alienation and disaffection. In “Automat” he captured the psychological make-up of the American social landscape of his age.
CREDITS
NEW YORK ALMANACK Illustrations, from above: Edward Hopper’s “Automat,” 1927 (Des Moines Art Center, Iowa); Jacques de Vaucanson’s ‘Canard Digérateur’ (Digesting Duck), 1764; Mathurin Roze de Chantoiseau in Paris, 1766; Horn & Hardart’s Automat on Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, 1904 postcard; Mark Twain dining at Delmonico’s, 1905 (Museum of the City of New York); and a typical Automat on 8th Avenue, 1937.
SALVAGED REMNANTS OF GOLDWATER LAMP PLACED IN RIOC STORAGE UNTIL PIECES CAN BE MADE INTO AN ARTWORK. STAY TUNED……& SUGGESTIONS WELCOME.
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
On the corner of Broadway and 20th Street stands what is left of the elaborate 1870 Lord & Taylor store — a busy cast iron montage of pillars and balconies, deep-set windows and dormers, and the dramatic Second Empire mansard cap over the corner that most distinguishes the building.
The structure was Lord & Taylor’s third. Cousins Samuel Lord and George W Taylor opened their first dry goods store in 1826 on Catherine Street. By the outbreak of the Civil War they had moved to Grand Street and Broadway and in 1869, having established a reputation among Manhattan’s carriage trade, needed a yet larger store. Upscale stores like Tiffany’s and Lord & Taylor’s rival Arnold, Constable & Co. had relocated northward to the Union Square area that same year.
Purchasing land from the Goelet family (895-899 Broadway) and the Badeau family (the corner lot at 20th Street only a block south of the new Arnold, Constable store), Lord & Taylor prepared for their move. James H. Giles was commissioned to design their emporium. A Brooklyn architect who was responsible for a few lower Manhattan cast iron buildings as well as the earlier gothic-style Christ Church in Williamsburg (where he even designed the organ cabinet), Giles went all-out for the new store.
His five-story extravaganza, costing half a million dollars, departed from conventional cast iron designs. Rather than creating a facade pretending to be stone, his was unabashedly cast iron. Architectural critics of the day praised the innovation; one of the few criticisms being the overall beige color rather than a polychromed paint scheme.
Shoppers ride the hand-hoist elevator on Lord & Taylor’s opening day in 1870 – NYPL Collection
Thousands of shoppers crowded into the new store on November 28, 1870 through the impressive main entrance on Broadway, south of the corner building we recognize as the Lord & Taylor building today. Hand-hoisted elevators carried customers from floor to floor to sample the latest in imported merchandise. The emporium enjoyed tremendous success in the new location, prompting further additions towards Fifth Avenue. This growth was due in part to Lord & Taylor’s innovative marketing — they were the first, for instance, to install Christmas windows — the start of a treasured New York tradition.
As other large retailers moved further uptown so did Lord and Taylor, building their present location at 38th Street and 5th Avenue in 1915 and abandoning the grand cast iron structure. Almost immediately the old store changed. That year the main section on Broadway lost its cast iron facade and was refaced in stone. Little by little, only the corner building at No. 901 Broadway was left intact. The 20th Century was not kind to No. 901 Broadway. Used for loft space and manufacturing for decades, by the 1980s it was grubby and rusting and largely empty. Despite landmark status, the future for the old Lord & Taylor store was grim.
A series of owners, starting with Darius Sakhai in 1995, reversed the trend. The upper facade was restored and tacky storefronts replaced. In 2006 Joseph Sitt paid $17.375 million for the building and three years later resold it for just under $25 million. Although still not completely occupied the surviving sliver of Lord & Taylor’s 19th Century emporium seems to have a brighter future.
CREDITS
DAYTONIAN IN MANHATTAN
NEW STAND-UP SIGNS INVITE VISITORS INTO THE KIOSK. EASILY PLACED ON THE TRAM PLAZA THESE REPLACE ONES THAT HAD TO BE PLANTED IN THE HARD SOIL.
THANKS TO ALL OUR READERS THAT SHOPPED A WONDERFUL FIRST YARD SALE AT COLER.
LOOK FOR MORE ACTIVITES FROM THE COLER AUXILIARY, JUDITH BERDY
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TAKE RED BUS TO OCTAGON STOP, WALK NORTH ON WEST PROMENADE TO COLER. ENTRANCE IS JUST PAST MAIN ENTRANCE AT THE COLER GARDEN.
NYC MANHOLE COVERS:
HISTORY AND HOW THEY’RE MADE
PART 2 MICHELLE YOUNG
UNTAPPED NEW YORK
ISSUE #1280
MONDAY-WEDNESDAY, JULY 29-31. 2024
The High Bridge was once part of the Croton Aqueduct system that brought in fresh water to New York City
So, for urgent public health reasons all around the world, sewage systems had to be developed and systems built to bring in clean water. This is how we get some of the oldest manhole covers left in New York City. In 1842, the first Croton Aqueduct was completed bringing fresh water down to the city from Westchester County by means of gravity. It was one of the largest engineering feats of the 19th century. The system opened to great fanfare with a celebration that included a parade down Broadway, the ringing of church bells and the shooting of canons. Gravity-powered fountains in City Hall Park and other places in Manhattan shot water 50 feet up into the air. Manhole covers were needed to access the new exciting system underground.
Tracking historical ephemera, like the oldest manhole covers, is one of my past times. For years, a Croton Aqueduct manhole cover on Jersey Street next to the Puck Building in Soho was often cited as the oldest manhole in New York City. It had the words “CROTON AQUEDUCT D.P.T. 1866” on it. Sadly, roadwork in 2017 wiped away its existence so you won’t find it there anymore. The quest then remained to find the next manhole cover that could be crowned the oldest
NYC’s oldest manhole cover dates to 1862 and sits across from the Port Authority Bus Terminal
Turns out, another Croton Aqueduct manhole cover — even older than the Jersey Street one — had been here all along. Dating to 1862, as evidenced by the cast-iron numbers, this manhole cover is even better preserved because it sits on a sidewalk. It is however, located in a far less charming spot —across from the much-despised Port Authority Bus Terminal next to Times Square on 40th Street and 8th Avenue.
Another one from the same year was found in Central Park and then in 2021, reader Don Burmeister, who runs the site A Field Guide to New York City Manhole Covers, tipped us off to an even older one! Dating to 1861 and located in Central Park this manhole cover currently holds the title of New York City’s oldest in our book.
NYC’s oldest manhole cover dates to 1862 and sits across from the Port Authority Bus Terminal
Turns out, another Croton Aqueduct manhole cover — even older than the Jersey Street one — had been here all along. Dating to 1862, as evidenced by the cast-iron numbers, this manhole cover is even better preserved because it sits on a sidewalk. It is however, located in a far less charming spot —across from the much-despised Port Authority Bus Terminal next to Times Square on 40th Street and 8th Avenue.
Another one from the same year was found in Central Park and then in 2021, reader Don Burmeister, who runs the site A Field Guide to New York City Manhole Covers, tipped us off to an even older one! Dating to 1861 and located in Central Park this manhole cover currently holds the title of New York City’s oldest in our book.
A ConEd “Millenium” manhole cover the agency put out for the year 2000. It was designed by Karim Rashid, who won a competition.
To learn more about manhole covers, I spoke with Lisa Frigand, who worked for ConEd for 34 years starting in 1978. She retired as the Manager of Cultural Affairs at ConEd in 2012 but is still involved in the arts, making her own ceramics and embroidery. She tells me that when she was working at ConEd, the company had about 250,000 manhole covers and that they weigh between 200 and 300 pounds each. A spokesman at ConEd confirmed her estimate, telling me that the company manages approximately 265,000 structures which include manholes, service boxes and transformer vaults. But then the NYC Department of Environmental Protection also gave me their numbers, and they have about 350,000 manhole covers across the five boroughs! So for now, I’m crowning the DEP with having the most number of manhole covers in the city!
A good number of manholes covers have the words MADE IN INDIA on them in large, all capital letters. Have you ever wondered why that is? To get down to the bottom of this, I spoke with Natasha Raheja, an anthropologist and professor at Cornell University and the director of the documentary Cast In India, which is an exploration into how manhole covers in New York City are made. Her quest to understand the connection to India took her to Howrah, a city in West Bengal, where some of the NYC Sewer manholes are being manufactured. In our latest podcast episode, Natasha explains what materials manhole covers are made from, how they’re manufactured, and some additional fun facts. You can watch Cast in India on Apple TV, Google Play, Kanopy, and Amazon Prime (in select countries).
Manhole covers are also made in the United States. ConEdison tells me that it gets most of its manhole covers from a foundry in Michigan called East Jordan, but they work with a few other US-based foundries as well.
New York City is a fountain of inspiration for artists. Even the most mundane of objects have been turned into art, and the manhole cover is no exception. In the year 2000, nineteen custom manhole covers appeared in Greenwich Village with a cryptic phrase on it: “In Direct Line with Another and the Next.” The words looked like they had been almost stamped onto a generic looking manhole cover. The letters were in all capitals, but everything was a little crooked. If you came across it, you might look around you for something it might reference, perhaps in direct line with it. But it wasn’t quite as direct as that.
On the rim of the manhole cover, you would see the names of three organizations involved: The Public Art Fund, Con Edison and Roman Stone Company. It was an art initiative from the Public Art Fund, a non-profit dedicated to putting art in public spaces. The design itself came from Bronx-born artist Lawrence Weiner, whose text-based art has been in museums and public spaces all around the world. He was one of the pioneering artists who began using language as art. New Yorkers may remember his more recent installation in 2009 on the piers of the Battery Maritime Building, where the ferries to Governors Island leave from. It read: “AT THE SAME MOMENT” in large red lettering.
Lisa Frigand, whom we spoke to earlier, was actually instrumental in getting Lawrence Wiener’s manhole cover project executed, when she was Manager of Cultural Affairs at ConEd. She worked with Roman Stone Company, a foundry on Long Island, to get the manhole covers designed to spec and made. I asked her what the phrase, “In Direct Line with Another and the Next” meant to her — and you can hear her answer in the podcast episode! You can find at least one of Weiner’s manhole covers remaining, as part of the Whitney Museum’s collection – it’s embedded in the floor near the entrance to the museum.
One of the most pressing questions I had about manholes is what it’s like to go down one. In 2009 I missed my own opportunity to do just that. Self-made urban archeologist and local icon, Bob Diamond, had discovered and excavated the famed Atlantic Avenue tunnel in Brooklyn and was giving tours. Built in 1844, it’s considered the world’s first underground transit tunnel. Chalk it up to being in my 20s and in a rock band at the time. I was out late performing and just couldn’t get up in time to go. I thought, I’ll be able to go again, but this is New York City and all off-limits things get shut down eventually. Fortunately for us, Justin Rivers did make it and you can hear all about his experience in the podcast episode.
Before we close out, have you figured out yet why are manhole covers round? My contact at the DEP says, “The principal reason that manhole covers are round is so they won’t fall into the manhole.” If a manhole is square, rectangular or even oval, it can fall into the manhole if you insert it at an angle or vertically. Yikes!
Over the last 160 years, New York City’s underground has become increasingly complex. We spoke today about the most common manhole covers you can find in the city, the NYC Sewer manhole covers and the ones for ConEd. But you’ll also find manhole covers for the subway, for the water system, and for telecommunication companies like Verizon and its subsidiaries, which include companies it acquired like the New York Telephone Company and Empire City Subway (ECS for short). Empire City Subway has nothing to do with the modern subway, but was formed after the Great Blizzard of 1888 which took down much of the city’s overhead electrical infrastructure. The aim of the company was to build underground ducts for telecommunication services.in.
An Empire City Subway manhole cover on Hudson Street
When companies go defunct, sometimes their manholes covers remain for a long time afterwards, becoming part of the city’s historical record. While the number of manhole covers in New York City is a constantly fluctuating number, what’s clear is that they continue to be an object of fascination for New Yorkers. Look down next time you’re walking around and see what you discover about New York City’s history and how the city works. Cowabunga!
How many manhole covers are there in New York City? How are they made? Where do they lead to? In an episode of The Untapped New York Podcast we go over manhole covers 101 and discuss why New Yorkers find them to be such curious objects. We speak with Lisa Frigand, the former Manager of Cultural Affairs at the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, Natasha Raheja, an anthropologist at Cornell University who made the film Cast in India about how manhole are made, and with Justin Rivers, Untapped New York’s Chief Experience Officer, who will talk about his personal experience going down into a manhole. We’ll also look at a unique manhole cover art project that popped up in Greenwich Village. By the end of the episode, you’ll also have the answer to that famous interview question, why are manhole covers round?
If you look down on New York City’s streets, you’ll see quite a cacophony of things from manhole covers, to spray painted symbols, to crosswalks, and more. To kick things off, we first went out onto a Greenwich Village street with Justin Rivers to check out some manholes. The area around Minetta Street is a treasure trove for manhole cover hunters. In just about two blocks, you’ll find dozens of manhole covers for gas, water, sewer and the subway. Of particular note is a DPW manhole cover you’ll find on Minetta Street. If you shine a flashlight down one of the open holes on the cover, you can see the former Minetta Brook flowing. This former fresh-water source for New Yorkers has been long buried and connects into the sewer system now. DPW stands for Department of Public Works, a predecessor of the NYC Department of Environmental Protection. It’s just one of the many abbreviations you’ll find on NYC manhole covers.
A look at the Minetta Stream down a manhole
On Minetta Lane and the vicinity, you’ll be able to trace the evolution of the NYC Sewer manhole cover from a late-Victorian DPW manhole cover with ornate lettering, to a more industrial DPW manhole cover, to the classic NYC Sewer manhole cover, to one that is also “MADE IN INDIA,” as well as one that simply says “SEWER.”
On Minetta Street, a NYC Sewer Made in India manhole cover sits next to a more old-school DPW manhole cover
Each manhole cover is a portal to an underground world below. In popular culture, what lies beneath has been explored repeatedly, perhaps most notably by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who would pop a manhole cover to go down to their underground lair that they shared with Splinter, the mutant rat who raised them. The NYC Sewer manhole cover also doubled as a weapon.
Popular fascination with underground systems continues to be manifested in the websites of urban explorers, writers and photographers. This enthrallment can be attributed in part to the rich mythological origins of a fabled underground. In Greek and Roman mythology, Hades is an underground world of arrivals, transition, and temporality. Even if we don’t think of the world under New York City’s streets as a place for lost souls, manholes still remain as a portal between the city as us mortals experience it and the underbelly that supports our existence.
A coal hole cover in Brooklyn Heights
The earliest manhole covers you can find in cities are usually coal hole covers. Made of cast iron, they are generally square or rectangular in shape, sometimes hexagonal. They led to former coal chutes in residences and commercial buildings. Although coal is no longer used to heat homes, you can still find coal hole covers in some of New York City’s oldest districts, like Brooklyn Heights.
But the round manhole covers that most people think of are usually connected to essential services like water, sewers, and power. The advent of modern urban existence in the 1800s necessitated the removal of these services underground. It was part functional but also a utopian ideal, intended to preserve the beauty of cities.
The word “sewer” is defined in old English as “seaward,” which described the open drainage ditches that sloped downwards to the Thames River. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the origin of the word sewer to the old French word seuwiere, meaning “a channel to drain overflow.” By the nineteenth century, the waste from these conduits in all the major cities eventually overwhelmed the ability of natural bodies of water, like rivers and ponds, to self-cleanse. London experienced what is known as “The Great Stink” of 1858. The particular potency of the pollution that summer shut down government and prompted lawmakers to finally enforce and enact public health legislation.
Baron Georges Haussmann, who is credited with laying out modern Paris wrote in 1854, “The underground galleries, organs of the large city, would function like those of the human body, without revealing themselves to the light of day. Pure and fresh water, light, and heat would circulate there like the diverse fluids whose movement and maintenance support life. Secretions would take place there mysteriously and would maintain public health without troubling the good order of the city and without spoiling its exterior beauty.”
New York City was going through something similar. Like all early settlements, New Yorkers initially relied on existing bodies of water for fresh drinking water. Collect Pond is the most famous, located near the courthouses in Lower Manhattan today. The nearly 50-acre lake was the main source of drinking water, fed by an underground spring. But polluting industries like slaughterhouses, breweries, and tanneries built along the pond’s shores contaminated the water and eventually, the pond was filled in.
By 1811, the natural landscape around Collect Pond was gone and the relentless march of development continued even atop this poorly engineered and polluted landfill. The rough and tumble neighborhood built at Collect Pond became known as Five Points — immortalized in the Martin Scorsese film Gangs of New York. Things got so disgusting with sewage and industrial runoff, they actually had to fill Collect Pond in. A canal was created to drain the pond, but it too became an open sewer and had to be filled in. That’s how Canal Street got its name.
One of the public health crises that emerged from contaminated water was cholera. The first wave of cholera in 1832 killed 3500 New Yorkers. Adjusted for population, that would be equivalent to 100,000 New Yorkers losing their lives in 2020, which is nearly four times the current death toll of COVID-19 in New York City. New York would be hit with four more waves of cholera through 1866, some even deadlier than first wave, making it one of the most disastrous epidemics in New York City’s history.
PART 2 CONTINUES NEXT WEEK
ALL PROCEEDS WILL GO TO SUPPORT THE AUXILIARY PROGRAMS
CREDITS
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Illustrations, from above: Tin Pan Alley in 1905; Abraham Lefcourt, June 1927 (courtesy Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University); The Brill Building in 1931; The Brass Portrait bust of Alan E. Lefcourt above the Brill Building’s entrance; and a young Paul Simon and Carole King in the Brill Building, 1959.
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
During the 1960s, the Brill Building in Manhattan revolutionized all aspects of the music industry. The operations of this one building turned the fledgling genres of rock and pop into a streamlined machine.
In a matter of a few years, the building’s music businesses revolutionized the process of songwriting, recording, and promotion. On top of this, the building produced timeless hits of the 1960s and launched the careers of the biggest singer-songwriters in history.
So how is it that a rather unassuming building in the heart of Manhattan could have such an immense impact?
The origin of the Brill Building can be traced back to one man: Abraham Lefcourt. Lefcourt was born in Birmingham, England in 1876 but immigrated to Manhattan in 1882.
He worked his way up through the ranks of New York City society, starting work as a shoeshine and newsboy. Lefcourt’s break came when he made his foray into the world of real estate.
In 1910, he built a 12-story building housing garment businesses. By 1930, he had developed 31 multi-million dollar properties throughout Manhattan’s Garment District.
In 1929, Lefcourt turned his attention to a property on the corner of Broadway and 49th Street. This property housed the Brill Brother’s men’s clothing store, but Lefcourt had greater ambitions for it. He aspired to build the tallest building on Earth – a 1,050 foot skyscraper – on the site of the store.
Lefcourt soon leased the property from the Brills and began construction on his $30 million colossus.
This plan was far from unique to Lefcourt. During the 1920s, Manhattan moved upward, with firms competing against one another to build the tallest tower in the city. The years following the First World War saw the US population and economy boom, leading to a need for 10 times more office space than was available.
On an island as small as Manhattan, the only choice was to build upward. As architect Louis Horowitz remembered, “Our bellwether was proven by the sudden hurry of many to lease offices from us-inland manufacturers of everything that fighting soldiers needed. Brokers, lawyers and a host of others signed up for space.”
In line with this was a trend of growing consumerism. More and more people could afford automobiles, radios, and tickets to movies – both silent and sound. In this period of unparalleled growth and prosperity, architectural projects likewise expanded, mirroring this growth.
As soon as there was demand for skyscrapers, there was also competition. By 1930, three Manhattan buildings were vying to be tallest in the world. The first completed was the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building at 40 Wall Street. With its upper pyramid reaching a staggering 927 feet, the building was the largest on record upon its completion in May 1930.
The building however would not keep this title for even a year before the Chrysler Building topped it at 1,046 feet. As the legend goes, Chrysler waited for the completion of 40 Wall Street, before raising the Chrysler Building’s trademark spire, giving it the title.
Again, within only a year, both towers had been dwarfed by the massive 1,454-foot Empire State Building. In spite of this, Abraham Lefcourt thought that his Brill Building stood a real chance at winning this architectural space race.
As if the space constraints were not bad enough, the market crashed one month into construction. October 29th, 1929 – known as Black Tuesday – ravaged Wall Street, and kicked off the multi-year Great Depression.
By 1932, the US stock market had lost 89% of its value, and unemployment rose to 25% as banks collapsed across the country. Lefcourt surprisingly viewed this as a blessing in disguise. He hoped that investors would abandon the stock market, and invest more in land, only emboldening his construction plans.
It was clear that construction constraints and the collapse of the global economy could not stop Lefcourt. However, personal tragedy in 1930 ended his architectural aspirations.
On February 3rd, Lefcourt’s son Alan died of anemia, and within one month Abraham had stopped construction of the building at only ten stories. Abraham christened this new office building the Alan E. Lefcourt Building in honor of his late son.
While nowhere near as tall as its competitors, the Lefcourt building was an architectural marvel in its own right. The white brick tower embodied the Art Deco style of the 1920s standing in stark contrast to the other buildings on Broadway. In addition, it features ornate terracotta reliefs, and brass portrait busts of Alan Lefcourt.
When the building opened in 1930, it hosted modern amenities that made it desirable as an executive office space. Upon its opening, the New York Times reported that it boasted “new automatic-stop, high-speed elevators,” and a shopping lobby.
Lefcourt began by leasing out entire floors to firms which were to be later subdivided. While some law and accounting firms, as well as utility offices opened, this model was largely a failure. By 1934, many offices were still vacant, leading to a shift in strategy.
Floors were divided up into small office spaces that were individually leased to tenants. This proved to be a success, attracting specifically the music industry to the building. Within only ten years, 100 music tenants had moved into the Brill Building.
The Origins of Popular Music in New York
The music industry within the Brill Building built off of a longer tradition of pop music in Manhattan. Since 1890, Midtown Manhattan had housed its own music industry known as Tin Pan Alley.
The area along West 28th Street originally housed residential row houses, but shifted towards music with the establishment of M. Witmark and Sons publishing in 1893. By 1900, the block had the largest concentration of music publishers anywhere in the country.
On top of this, Tin Pan Alley housed a large concentration of saloons and music halls that worked alongside publishers.
In many ways, Tin Pan Alley invented modern music promotion through the process of “plugging.” Plugging was the idea of having as many people as possible hear your song. In an era before radio, TV, or film, plugging required live performance.
As a result, Tin Pan Alley publishers allied with local music halls to promote their compositions. These promotions included free sheet music, singalongs, and other events. Because of these plugging techniques, Tin Pan Alley was always alive with the sound of piano tunes. This lively atmosphere gave the area and industry its name, with “tin pan” being slang for the cheap pianos used in the area’s saloons.
Throughout its operations, Tin Pan Alley launched timeless hits and legendary careers. The Alley’s composers penned songs including “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” “God Bless America,” and “Hello Ma Baby.” Many of these Tin Pan Alley hits transcend era and genre, remaining well known almost a century after their composition. In addition to hits like these, many of the alley’s composers became celebrities in their own right.
One such composer was a young Russian immigrant named Israel Beilin, who immigrated to Manhattan in 1893. Upon his naturalization, immigration authorities legally changed his name to Irving Berlin.
At only 19, Berlin was composing songs for Tin Pan Alley publishers. With hits like “Alexander’s Jug Band,” and the aforementioned “God Bless America,” Berlin took over popular music. Throughout his career, he penned hundreds of songs, and topped the charts 25 times.
Tin Pan Alley publishers also revolutionized the music industry through the creation of dance crazes. capitalizing off past theater and ragtime hits, the alley’s composers began writing danceable novelty songs. These – like modern dance crazes – were meant to be fads, spreading quickly and aiding in the sale of sheet music to clubs across the country.
Many of these Tin Pan Alley dances were just that, with the “Turkey Trot,” “Grizzly Bear,” and “Cubanola Glide” quickly gaining popularity then falling out of favor. One dance – The Foxtrot – became a craze unlike any other, growing into its own genre.
These dance crazes foreshadow a technique that Brill Building songwriters would latch onto decades later. In fact, Brill Building writer Neil Sedaka argues that its songwriting infrastructure was a natural evolution of Tin Pan Alley plugging.
Despite its massive success and revolutionary methods, Tin Pan Alley did not last forever. For one, the local industry could not keep up with the technological advances of the 1920s.
Much of Tin Pan Alley’s profits were directly tied to the sale of sheet music, which quickly became outdated as radio and recordings were becoming more widespread. Despite this, many publishers were able to persevere despite lowered sales.
The invention of the sound movie – or “Talkie” – was what really ended the alley’s operations. The medium was a great vehicle for song promotion, leading to West Coast entertainment firms buying up many of the local publishers in the alley.
As Tin Pan Alley was dying down, a new genre called Jazz was exploding in Manhattan. During the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, New York became a hub for African American musicians and artists. Jazz was not a new genre, with its roots originating from the musical tradition of America’s enslaved population.
As the New York Times reported in 1926, “Jazz came to America 300 years ago in chains.” Despite this long history, the 1920s was when jazz really emerged onto the music scene.
In Harlem’s speakeasies, like the Cotton Club, artists like Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong revolutionized the genre and introduced it to larger and larger audiences. As a result of these artists, the 1920s is often remembered as the “Jazz Age.”
As the US entered the 1930s, many Jazz artists began incorporating elements of Tin Pan Alley songs. Jazz bands were growing in size, featuring large horn and rhythm sections. Bandleaders began performing slower, lushly orchestrated jazz versions of the foxtrot.
This type of swing music became known as “Big Band” due to the size of the ensembles performing it. Big Band soon became the defining sound of the era, with bandleaders like Count Basie, Benny Goodman, and Bob Crosby topping the charts.
The Brill Building Becomes a Music Hub
When Tin Pan Alley’s influence began to wane, many of its songwriters still remained in New York. Needing work, many publishers, songwriters, and promoters began to lease small offices in the Brill Building throughout the 1930s. Stars of the Harlem Renaissance like Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington, as well as big band stars Louis Prima and Nat King Cole all had offices in the building during the decade.
In addition to these big names, songwriters continued their work in the building, adapting the process of plugging for the radio era. These composers would take songs written in the Brill Building and present them to radio stations and orchestras to be made into hits.
Brill Building songs were frequent features on Billboard’s Hit Parade radio program, with stars like the Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and Tommy Dorsey Orchestras performing them. The building’s operations during the Big Band Era established the framework that its songwriters perfected during the rock n roll age.
By the 1950s, Big Band and crooners were falling out of fashion with American teens, who were becoming enthralled by rock ‘n’ roll. Much like its predecessor jazz, rock originated from the musical tradition of enslaved African Americans in the South.
This musical tradition, encompassing blues, country, and gospel slowly melded together to form something entirely new. Building off of guitar virtuosos like Robert Johnson, bluesmen like T Bone Walker and Muddy Waters began to incorporate electric instrumentation into their stylings.
These bluesmen established the electric guitar as the centerpiece of the genre, establishing the foundation for rock ‘n’ roll. In 1951, Jackie Brenston released “Rocket 88,” often considered to be the first rock record. The song is heavily indebted to the blues, being led by piano and saxophone with an underlying distorted guitar.
The song hit #1 on the Billboard R&B charts, kicking off the rock era. By 1958, with the release of Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode,” rock had become the genre of American youth. Piggybacking off of this success, radio programs, jukeboxes, and American Bandstand all highlighted rock music.
It was this explosion of rock ‘n’ roll into the American mainstream that truly made the Brill Building. By the end of the 1950s, songwriters played a major role in rock music, penning tunes for rock stars to perform.
Perhaps the most influential songwriters were the duo of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who wrote Elvis hits “Hound Dog,” and “Jailhouse Rock.” With songwriters like these, there was a “professionalization” of the rock genre, with a streamlining of the songwriting, recording, and promotion processes.
The Brill Building quickly became the center of this professionalized rock industry. By 1962, the Brill Building housed 162 music businesses.
In 1958, publishing duo Don Kirshner and Al Nevis founded Aldon Music, which quickly became the city’s paramount music business. The firm was originally located at 1650 Broadway – a block away from the Brill Building – but cooperated closely with the building’s businesses.
Kirshner and Neivis recognized the importance of marketing towards America’s teens, and created an assembly line for rock music production. Aldon Music realized that teen songwriters could best understand the sensibilities that would appeal to the youth market. As a result they established a team of young writers to crank out pop songs.
This songwriting process was ruthlessly efficient. Writers would work in small offices, often adorned with only an upright piano, penning teen pop songs for hours each day. Once finished, writers would take their songs to the building’s publishers until someone bought them.
On top of that, publishers could get arrangements, vocalists, and lead sheets all from within the building’s businesses. With all of those pieces, a demo could be recorded all within the same day.
In many ways, the Brill Building was its own self-contained industry, containing all the ingredients needed for pop song writing, recording, and publishing.
You can read more about the Brill Building’s role in creating modern pop music at our arts and culture reporting partner NYS Music.
CREDITS
NYS Music is New York State’s Music News Source, offering daily music reviews, news, interviews, video, exclusive premieres and the latest on events throughout New York State and surrounding areas. Subscribe to their newsletter here.
Illustrations, from above: Tin Pan Alley in 1905; Abraham Lefcourt, June 1927 (courtesy Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University); The Brill Building in 1931; The Brass Portrait bust of Alan E. Lefcourt above the Brill Building’s entrance; and a young Paul Simon and Carole King in the Brill Building, 1959.
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
POSE WITH A GIANT OCTOPUS SCULPTURE AT THE OCULUS IN NYC
UNTAPPED NEW YORK
ISSUE #1278
WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 2024
Eight welcoming arms…make that tentacles…beckon passersby to engage with a brand new interactive art installation at the World Trade Center. Titled “The Arms of Friendship,” this piece by artists Gille and Marc is one of the largest octopus sculptures in the world! Placed outside the Oculus World Trade Center on the South Oculus Plaza, the playful sculpture embodies the artist couple’s mission of connecting people and wildlife.
Photo Courtesy of Gillie and Marc
A giant octopus isn’t the only colossal creature Gillie and Marc rendered in bronze for this artwork. Cradled in the octopus’ tentacles sit a handful of the world’s most endangered animals including a rhino, zebra, elephant, hippo, and more. You can also spot two of Gillie and Marc’s signature characters, Rabbitwoman and Dogman.
Photo Courtesy of Gillie and Marc
The sculpture spans 36 feet and weighs a hefty 7 tons. Visitors are invited to sit on the massive tentacles, among the animals, and get an up-close look. By fostering this closeness between people and the realistic and super-detailed animal figures, the artists hope to inspire a connection and spread awareness of the need for wildlife conservation.
In addition to “The Arms of Friendship,” two signature interactive sculptures, “The Wild Table of Love” and “The Hippo Was Hungry To Try New Things With Rabbitwoman” are also on display outside the Oculus. Here again, humans are invited to interact with the animals. Have a seat at the table and dine among the endangered species!
The three bronze sculptures will be on view through July 31st, 2025. You can also check out Gille and Marc’s “The Wild Couch Party” in the Financial District!
CALL JUDITH BERDY FOR ADDITIONAL
DONATION TIMES:917 744 3721
CREDITS
UNTAPPED NEW YORK
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
WE NEED YOUR DONATIONS TO SUPPORT THE COLER AUXILIARY
BRING YOUR DONATIONS TO COLER AUXILIARY ON WEDNESDAY,JULY 24TH FROM 10 A.M. TO 1 P.M.
CONTACT US PRIOR TO ARRIVAL AT 917 744 3721
CREDITS
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
TODAY AND WEDNESDAY 10 A.M. TO 1 P.M. AT COLER CALL 917-744-3721 UPON ARRIVAL
BRING YOUR DONATIONS TO COLER AUXILIARY ON MONDAY, JULY 22 & WEDNESDAY,JULY 24TH FROM 10 A.M. TO 1 P.M.
CONTACT US PRIOR TO ARRIVAL AT 917 744 3721
A DAY TRIP
TO
GOVERNOR’S ISLAND
ISSUE # 1277
JUDITH BERDY RANYEE LEE & HAYOON JAY LEE
I have been reading all about the new attractions on Governor’s Island. Who can resist a day trip off the island for $2.90 (senior fare)?
My friends Ranyee and Hayoon joined me at the Wall Street Pier. The NY Ferry lands at the Yankee Dock on Governor’s Island. It’s slightly confusing as the few times I have been there, Soisson’s Landing was used.
There are two ferry operators on weekends, the NYC Ferry from Wall Street, and the Governor’s Island Ferry from the Battery Marine Building ($5 for adults, free for seniors).
Transportation on the island includes bikes, pedal bikes, and walking. There seems to be a large golf cart for those with disabilities. Many distances are long and some are on sunny hills. The area around the federal landmark, Fort Jay, and Nolan Park near Fort Jay have lots of shaded areas.
One issue is the scarce availability of bathrooms, similar to our island. There are a few tucked away from the active areas. With thousands of visitors, I could only locate five sites on the map. Most are portable trailer units, and though large, they become uncomfortably hot in this weather.
There is a large food court and dining area on Liggitt Terrace. All kind of food offerings are there and plenty of seating.
In Other of Pearl, Jenny Kendler (b. 1980, New York, NY) tells the story of the extractive histories that form the origin stories of the climate and environmental crisis, while considering the oyster and whale as central players in an ecological entanglement between human and nonhuman beings, waterways, and flows of capital.
Focusing on our relationships with these two very different beings, Kendler illuminates the ways in which capitalist systems are often founded upon the bodies of others. The artist confronts contemporary environmental issues — climate change, ocean noise, chemical pollution, biodiversity loss, and sea level rise — while pointing towards the cultural structures that have allowed these catastrophes to occur.
Other of Pearl, Kendler’s first solo exhibition in New York City, transforms the magazine of Fort Jay into a space for slow exploration. Here you will encounter seven intimate and delicate works, including a handblown glass instrument where you can sing in the voice of a whale and pearl sculptures grown inside oysters. At the conclusion of the exhibition, the pearl sculptures will be auctioned to raise funds to help create a new oyster reef — redistributing resources in a gesture of ecological restoration — in partnership with the Billion Oyster Project.
By offering this proposition of a more intimate, and bodily relationship with the natural world, Other of Pearl proposes a new way to envision who matters and who we build the future for, inviting us to imagine a restored practice of reciprocity between human and non-humans.
Jenny Kendler is an interdisciplinary artist, environmental activist, naturalist, and wild forager whose work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at museums, biennials, public spaces, and natural areas. For the past two decades, Kendler’s work has focused on climate change and biodiversity loss. Her practice seeks to decenter the human and re-enchant our relationship with the natural world. She is a founding member of Artists Commit, which seeks to raise climate consciousness in the artworld, and Artist-in-Residence at NRDC.
OTHER OF PEAR IS LOCATED UNDER FORT JAY, A PERFECT COOL DARK LOCATION TO APPRECIATE THE PEARLS AND OYSTERS.
MEDITATIONS ON MEDICATION is an exhibition made up entirely of prescription bottles(empty). Inside one of the homes on Colonels Row a vast array of bottles decorated the building
If you plan on visiting, bring some empties.
The amber glow of the bottles shines thru the curtain
Walking back to the ferry, we came upon the Synagogue. Relatively intact with a Stars of David, a menorah and signboard.
After 11,000 steps, we found our way back to Yankee Pier for the rides home. Judy, Hayoon, and Ranyee on another adventure
CREDITS
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
BRING YOUR DONATIONS TO COLER AUXILIARY ON MONDAY, JULY 22 & WEDNESDAY,JULY 24TH FROM 10 A.M. TO 1 P.M.
CONTACT US PRIOR TO ARRIVAL AT 917 744 3721
INSIDE THE
WASHINGTON SQUARE ARCH
ISSUE # 1276
UNTAPPED NEW YORK
One of New York City’s most elusive places is the inside of the Washington Square Park arch, which has been long closed off to the public. Until a few years ago, the interior was too unstable for public access. But a video from the Unforgotten film series, which premiered first on Untapped New York in 2022, gives you a first-hand look inside. The episode, titled “How History, Community, and Art Can Define an Iconic New York City Monument,” features Sheryl Woodruff, Deputy Director of the Washington Square Park Conservancy; Nicholas Baume, Artistic & Executive Director at Public Art Fund; Karen Karbiener, Professor in the English department at New York University; and Michelle Young, the founder of Untapped New york. The video depicts everything from dance and music performances in the park to a public art installation and shots of the Arch’s interior.
The Unforgotten Films is now partnering with the New York Landmark Conservancy to highlight forgotten New York sites and their histories. For the next few months, the Conservancy will highlight a new Unforgotten film on social media. Each film will focus on a different location, from the abandoned hospital on Ellis Island to Green-Wood Cemetery. We’ll be following along, so stay tuned!
The episode captures the diversity and the “greater city” within the park through interviews and B-roll scenes of daily life. The episode gives viewers a bit of a history lesson as well; the park was built atop a potter’s field with approximately 20,000 people buried by 1825. Washington Square Park was opened two years later as a military parade ground, which people used to congregate. The Arch was one of the final additions to the park after the fountain in the 1850s. The Arch has a spiral staircase inside that leads to the roof, giving the rare viewer a 360-degree look at Manhattan (access inside and atop was provided through a special joint event between Untapped New York and NYC Parks in 2019 thanks to former Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver).
In the episode, you will learn about the time Marcel Duchamp and other Dadaists illegally climbed to the top of the Arch and declared it an independent republic. Fast forward to the modern era, and the episode also dives into artist Ai Weiwei‘s 2017 sculpture “Good Fences Make Good Neighbors,” which served as a commentary on the increasing hostility towards immigrants nationwide. Ai integrated his sculpture into the shape of the arch, which the episode suggests reinforced the diversity and openness of people from all walks of life.
“Washington Square Park certainly is a cultural center and folks will rally either around the fountain or around the arch itself.” Sheryl Woodruff, Deputy Director of the Washington Square Park Conservancy, says in the video. “It’s been the site of protests, it’s been the site of incredible cultural activity in a place where you can feel the city’s presence very strongly,” Karen Karbiener of NYU and the Walt Whitman Initiative, continues.
Unforgotten Films is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by the Brooklyn Arts Council.
MARJORIE MATTHEWS AWARDS AT COLER
NYC Health + Hospitals celebrated their Community Advisory Boards and Hospital Auxiliaries on Thursday evening, at the waterfront tent in front of Coler.
Hundreds of guests gathered to acknowledge the community activities undertaken by each facility’s Community Advisory Board and Auxiliary. These groups operate across all our municipal hospitals and post-acute facilities.
These valuable organizations play a significant role in supporting the facilities and maintaining direct communication with the administration. The Auxiliaries are 501(c)3 not-for-profit organizations that fund activities, programs, and investments which the hospitals need but are unable to finance independently.
Above Borough President Mark Levine presented a proclamation to Verna Fitzpatrick, Chair of the Coler Community Advisory Board, along with Coler Executive Director Stephen Catullo
Judith Berdy and Jacqueline Kwedy of the Coler Auxiliary celebrate Francine Benjamin of the Resident Council celebrate with member Gloria Swaby
CREDITS
Untapped New York
Judith Berdy
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
